Born Elaine Berlin in Philadelphia, PA; educated at the Playwrights Theatre, Chicago; daughter of Yiddish theater director Jack Berlin. Former cabaret performer whose comic partnership with Mike Nichols culminated in their own Broadway showcase, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May (1960-61). After her play The Office never officially opened on Broadway in 1966, she won a 1969 Drama Desk Award as Most Promising Playwright for her Adaptation. In 1991, Nichols and May returned to the stage with Mike Nichols and Elaine May: Together Again on Broadway. Her plays Taller Than a Dwarf, Extra (one-act) and After the Night and the Music enjoyed short Broadway runs in 2000, 2002 and 2005 respectively. May debuted as a film director with A NEW LEAF (1971), but it was with 1972's hilarious THE HEARTBREAK KID (her only directorial outing to have been scripted by someone else) that she made her name as a director and also earned critical acclaim for MIKEY AND NICKY (1976), an offbeat study of petty gangsters starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. (Like her ISHTAR, 1987, however, MIKEY AND NICKY, 1976 was a failure at the box office.) May has yet to direct another film since the legendary failure of ISHTAR. She wrote Otto Preminger's SUCH GOOD FRIENDS (1971) under the pseudonym Esther Dale and made an uncredited contributions to the screenplays of REDS (1981), TOOTSIE (1982) and LABYRINTH (1986). Other notable (non-nominated) credits include THE BIRDCAGE (1996) and DOWN TO EARTH (2001). As an actress, she has appeared in LUV (1967), CALIFORNIA SUITE (1978), IN THE SPIRIT (1990) and SMALL TIME CROOKS (2000), as well as several TV series and specials. May is the mother of actress Jeannie Berlin (b. 1949). So brief was May's 1972-73 marriage to lyricist Sheldon Harnick of Fiddler on the Roof fame, the joke went that Elaine got custody of the cake.  Nominated for Writing: Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium 1978: HEAVEN CAN WAIT (w. Warren Beatty)  Nominated for Writing: Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published 1998: PRIMARY COLORS 2 nominations